A Tar Sands Blockader, Alejandro de la Torre, locked his body in a concrete capsule buried in the path of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline to stop a small family farm in East Texas from being destroyed by construction. He blocked demolition for at least six hours before police were able to break off a chunk of concrete is arm was in and arrest him.

Police confiscated cameras of Blockaders that were there to film for Torre’s safety. Tar Sands Blockade spokesperson Ramsey Sprague reported they wanted to keep cameras on him as long as possible but police intimidated observers and took the cameras.

Last week, TransCanada supervisors encouraged police to use torture tactics on protesters to stop their nonviolent direct action.

Sprague recounted the brutality, which was “astounding.” Shannon “Rain” Beebe and Benjamin Franklin locked themselves to TransCanada machinery to stop clear-cutting. The police hung them with their arms behind their backs. They put pressure on their shoulder with their arms twisted. They pepper sprayed a tube connecting their arms. They twisted a tube cutting off circulation to their hands. (One protester is seeking medical attention for nerve damage.)

The police used tasers and planned to keep using tasers on Beebe and Franklin until they released. Cameras were supposed to be on the scene to film the action, but police were directed by TransCanada supervisors to run off those with cameras so they could commit brutality without people seeing video evidence on the evening news.

Additionally, Sprague told Firedoglake police put a screen up over Torre to block observers from seeing what police were doing as they tried to remove Torre.

“Having witnesses and documentation is utterly crucial to holding police accountable for their actions in the moment,” Sprague said. “That footage ending up on the nightly news is not something they want to deal with.”

Prior to this action, Sprague was arrested while taking pictures on the side of the road. His removal made it possible for police to twist the arm of a Blockader, Gary, who was locked to a wood chipper. They twisted his arm so much, Sprague said, that Gary thought his arm would break.

“These types of interactions are emblematic of the total disregard for human beings that has had all along its pipeline route,” Sprague stated. Everything between Alberta, Canada, and Houston, Texas, “all those communities,” are basically “being treated as collateral damage for them to meet their bottom line.”

The family farm the action took place at was threatened and forced under heavy duress to sign a contract with TransCanada so they could destroy build a pipeline on farm property. The family opposed, but Sprague explained they were put in an impossible situation with no way out and their land would have been essentially stolen “at a discount” if they had not signed a contract.

Torre, who is twenty-eight years old, wrote in a post on the Tar Sands Blockade website that he was “willing to risk arrest” because he has a “certain amount of personal privilege that allows” him to take action.

…I don’t live near a Gulf refinery, or on land that’s at risk from a devastating tar sands spill, so I’m able to play a small part in an action that will really help people’s lives. I’m here to stand up for people on the front lines because they’re being trampled to make way for corporate profits.

People in Port Arthur and my home in Houston are the ones who will be bearing the brunt of the toxic emissions from the tar sands refineries and they’re not going to see any of the economic benefits. This is just another example of how people of color and low-income folks are placed in “sacrifice zones” for our current economic system. A system ruled by fossil fuel industry greed and the trampling of the rights of people and our environment….

Torre recounted how he had seen the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina and had come to take climate change seriously. His action was a “small thing” he could do with the hope that more people would follow his lead and struggle to “prevent runaway climate change.”

“We need to do the best we can to stop as much of this destruction as possible and demonstrate that there are social movements that will stand up to challenge it,” Torre declared. “We need to escalate our tactics to match the degree to which people are repressed and shut out of the decision making process.”

I don’t even recognize my country any more. I’m lucky — I’m already sucking off the gummint teat on Social Security so I won’t have to watch this play out for too much longer. I’m also profoundly glad that I don’t have children who will have to. I grieve that the young ones coming up today will accept police state tactics as the norm.

The family farm the action took place at was threatened and forced under heavy duress to sign a contract with TransCanada so they could destroy build a pipeline on farm property. The family opposed, but Sprague explained they were put in an impossible situation with no way out and their land would have been essentially stolen “at a discount” if they had not signed a contract.

The property rights issue could have some traction if pushed both for opposition to the pipeline and opposition to fracking. The mineral rights legislation (often called fracking bills) that ALEC has seen introduced in a lot of legislatures over the past two years (and Texas’s law which is used as a precedent) can best be called “they buy the mineral and steal the land”.

I’m not sure what the “heavy duress” in the case of the pipeline was, but that is a part of the details of the story that needs to be told. Because, if it exists in Texas law, it likely will soon become ALEC model legislation.

I know the obots don’t want to hear it, but this is the way it will be if o is elected to a second term. This pipeline is what o wants and if it takes torture and eminent domain to take people’s property to give it to big corpses, so be it. Don’t think that I am pulling for romney either. It will be the same under him. Don’t forget, the fascist police won’t come after everyone, just those that put themselves out in front in opposition. I think that the two candidates put forward by the uniparty are equally evil.

A commenter at Ben Franklin’s diary asked an interesting question. Why isn’t 350.org demonstrating in front of the White House now that Obama’s pipeline is under construction and these brave Blokaders are attempting to stop it?

I’m in the same boat-I have always known that I was too self centered to be a good parent. Things of this nature make me so very glad that I am old and that I will not have to endure that which their futures hold in store. I am just so pleased that I leave no one to suffer the that which the future holds in store for us.

dreadful that the police state of the u.s. has gone largely unopposed. the zions in banking made sure their allies run the state media – you will notice the infiltration of all large media with particular handlers/watchers wtf they call them creepies. the ultimate objective is to own everything and render the population as basically servants. its really sick.

but now they have a serious problem. it seems iran has decided to open their own currency exchange. and that china has a vested interest in iran. and of course russia will protect iran. and then russia and china want to have their own reserve currency.

if you saw “2011 ETHOS” utube you will have a better idea about things. in the meantime look for the thieves to raise healthcare costs to steal homes in the reverse mtg fraud. they really want the homes bad. lots of people to displace. they did this in 1948. called NAKBA. the zions dont feel that americans deserve america. which explains why they allow themselves to abuse the protestors.

If you and other supporters of the Blockade had the support of these well endowed Eco-Lobbies and they weren’t too busy with Civil Obedience the number of people blockading Obama’s Pipeline might grow.

The small group that is there are doing a great job of creative resistance.

350.org is tweeting about this and that is it. They had t-shirts and made this “their” issue and now they are just part of the peanut gallery as far as anyone can see. Why is that? That is a good, valid question to ask McKibbon (which I did) but no response.

A great response to these aggressive and illegal policies of the police is to have at least 3 layers of cameras. The ones following the arrests, then a second layer recording the confiscation of the original cameras, and even a third set of cameras in case the second ones get taken.

The police are so militarized that the disorganized people wouldn’t stand a chance. This is not like Syria. In addition, Americans are habituated to say that demonstrators are just troublemakers. And if the police were not enough, the all volunteer army or even mercenaries could be called up. Somehow, it seems to me, is that a real leader will have to arise out of the current leadership ranks. So far that isn’t happening.